Dominion

Dominion is a romantic fantasy novel set in a world of Four Dominions, each associated with a Celestial Guardian who sacrificed their human form millennia ago to seal the Demon Realm. The story is narrated in first person by Rubi, a young woman haunted by a recurring dream of a faceless woman singing a prophetic lullaby about a "light" who will rise and a "dragon's heart."

Three years before the novel begins, Rubi escaped the Azure Dragon Dominion during the Annihilation, a catastrophe in which the Azure Anchor failed and demons overran the land. She woke on a refugee ship with no memories, wearing only a jade bracelet now too small to remove—her sole physical link to a forgotten past. Edith, an older Azure woman, found and raised her. They live in poverty in the Dominion of the Silver Tyger, where Azures are tolerated because their green magic revives failing crops. Rubi works as a ribbon dancer in a segregated tavern, her performances producing an involuntary, mesmerizing hum she cannot control. Her yin Marks, palm symbols signaling one of two magical alignments, are so faint she appears nearly powerless. Her closest friend, Quinn, a wolf shapeshifter, watches over her and Edith.

After a performance, Blake Axefire confronts Rubi. He is the Ambush Master, leader of the king's elite Tyger Warriors, and a Zenith, the most powerful class of metal mage. His twin brother Zayden died during the Annihilation. Blake suspects Rubi's dancing involves an unknown magic and threatens her. That night, Flame, the only living tygress queen, escapes the royal dens and appears at Rubi's hut. Rubi throws herself between Flame and Edith, stabbing the tygress in self-defense. Blake arrests her for injuring royal property.

Blake reveals Rubi will face the Bonding ceremony, a ritual in which yang candidates, practitioners of the other magical alignment, attempt to Bond with royal tygers. Rejected candidates are killed. Over 200 enter the Arena; Rubi is the only yin and the only Azure. When a tyger slashes her chest, her voice instinctively freezes the beasts. Flame crashes into the Arena, heals Rubi's wound, and presses her paw to Rubi's palm. Light flares, and Flame speaks telepathically for the first time. Rubi mounts the tygress and completes the Queen's Ride, the ceremonial circuit sealing the Bond, becoming the first tygress rider in history.

Jace, the Captain of the Guard, escorts Rubi before King Uzar, who may reject the Bond and execute her. Rubi instinctively performs an elaborate curtsy known only to the highest royalty, and Flame rallies every tyger to roar in protest. The king permits Rubi to live.

The Diviner, a lesser god from the Immortal Realm, materializes and explains the crisis. Millennia ago, four Celestial Guardians sealed the Serpent Lord, the nine-headed ruler of the Demon Realm, behind Four Anchors. The Azure Anchor has fallen, and the remaining three are failing. If all are not repaired before the winter solstice, demons will overrun every dominion. Each dominion must assemble five warriors to combine their magic at each Anchor. Survivors earn an extraordinary boon. Rubi envisions her lost memories restored and resolves to fight. The king orders her into the Culling, the divine trial selecting each team.

Weeks of training follow. Rubi excels at riding Flame but struggles with conventional weapons. Calla, an Azure bear-shifter, becomes a close friend. Princess Malissa, the king's daughter, grows hostile toward Rubi, and Ire Frostbane, the king's nephew and heir, physically threatens her. Through late-night encounters, Blake and Rubi grow closer; he encourages her to fight with her ribbons.

At a city festival, Rubi discovers Blake is secretly the Ravager, the masked leader of the Ironstorm rebellion. He serves as the king's enforcer while secretly fighting to dismantle the system, sometimes forced to kill his own people on royal orders. The woman Rubi assumed was his wife is his sister Yvonne, a Lesser born without magic whom their father tried to kill. That night, Blake and Rubi share deep physical intimacy. Before the Culling, Blake gives her custom ribbon wands forged from thundervein, a rare unbreakable metal. They consummate their relationship.

The Culling transports each candidate into a personal vision. Rubi faces an enormous cauldron inscribed with "Remorse" and "Resolve." Overwhelmed by phantom grief, she presses her forearms against the burning iron, branding twin circles that mark her as chosen. Blake, Jace, Malissa, Ire, Quinn, and Calla all pass.

The Diviner transports the warriors to the Haven of the Gods, a divine platform at the edge of the Immortal Realm. Rubi and Blake Pair, a magical bond that links two people and amplifies their powers. Prince Auron of the Red Phoenix Dominion studies Rubi with unexplained familiarity. Rubi proposes each dominion train the others, and most agree. Auron shares phoenix phire, an icy white fire only his family can produce and the sole substance that kills demons. Rubi inadvertently speaks perfect Red Phoenix language, deepening the mystery of her origins.

Blake and Rubi confess their love. She proposes a Soul Pair, the deepest bond, which links two lives permanently so that if one dies, so does the other. Blake refuses, fearing the risk. That night, Ire drugs Flame and kidnaps Rubi. He reveals a deal with the Serpent Lord: In exchange for delivering the "woman of prophecy," Ire will be made emperor. He physically assaults Rubi. She reaches telepathically through Flame to every tyger in the dominion. Blake, riding his tyger Kingsolver at the head of a stampede, storms Ire's keep. Malissa kills Ire before he can be interrogated. Blake and Rubi attempt a Soul Pairing to remove a cursed collar suppressing Rubi's magic, but the bond backfires, shattering the collar without forming.

The warriors ascend Starborn Peak, the mountain housing the Silver Anchor, fighting through waves of Thirst demons, creatures that drain life force. They find the Anchor, a giant cracked diamond, with Edith unconscious at its base. The warriors pour combined magic into the diamond and repair it, but Blake collapses. The Starved, a colossal bone-white demon, emerges and demands the woman of prophecy. Quinn, in wolf form, is consumed. Rubi shields Blake and is pierced by the Starved before Calla strikes it away. Blake regains consciousness and drives a shadowsteel dagger—a rare destructive metal contributed by the Onyx Tortoise Dominion—into the demon while Rubi's singing amplifies the blow. The Starved is destroyed, but Rubi collapses from its poison.

While dying, Rubi recovers suppressed memories of her childhood in the Red Phoenix Dominion, her fire wings, and her secret marriage and Pairing with Azure Prince Draven, a shapeshifter.

Rubi wakes beneath the mirror tree, a memory-showing tree in her room at the Haven. Edith, her hair now red, has removed all spells from Rubi to neutralize the poison, including those suppressing her memories, altering her appearance, and concealing her power. Rubi's true name is Rubiana Phae, crown princess of the Red Phoenix Dominion. Edith is the Red Queen, Rubi's mother, and one of the most powerful nulls, or magic nullifiers, ever born. She disguised them as Azure refugees to hide Rubi from the Serpent Lord. Rubi's Marks now blaze: She is a Zenith. Auron is her brother. Draven survived the Annihilation and is believed to be king of the Azure Dominion. Rubi is already Paired to him, which explains why the Soul Pairing with Blake failed.

Rubi tells Blake everything. He is devastated but pledges to protect her until she reaches Draven, the "dragon's heart" the prophecy requires to defeat the Serpent Lord.

In an epilogue from Jace's perspective, his true identity is revealed: He is the son of the Serpent Lord and the White Bone Demon, a body-stealing demon who murdered and assumed the form of the Onyx Tortoise High Concubine. He killed the real Captain of the Guard during the Annihilation and assumed his identity. He wears a jade bracelet identical to Rubi's that manifested on his 12th birthday, marking him as the "serpent's heir" from the prophecy. Jace plans to accompany Rubi to the Red Phoenix Dominion and kill both Draven and Blake to claim her.